Abridged Transcript of Trailhead’s Boise Entrepreneur Week interview of Anthony Shallat by Tiam Rastegar.
Tiam: Anthony, let’s talk about. Um, Fisher, Hudson, Shallat. Tell me a little bit about the origin story and what kind of law areas of law focus on.
Anthony: The origin story is I graduated from law school and I took a job as a litigation attorney and I did that for four years and I decided that it was time for me to kind of make a change. And so I started collaborating with two other attorneys Vaughn Fisher and Jeremiah Hudson, and we formed Fisher, Hudson, Shallat. I went in with a specific focus really get into franchise law and startup law, business guidance, outside general counsel services, but basically identifying the pain points, where I can help a business as they grow.
I like offering a different prospective because it doesn’t have to be a scary conversation. We can have a conversation about your business, what you’re trying to achieve, and how to achieve. Certainty is good in business, of course with entrepreneurs, there’s a lot of ambiguity, but certainty, is something you should strive for as you grow your business. whether with your employees, your business partners, or your vendors, it’s important to feel comfortable that all your contracts and relationships have clarity.
Tiam: Sounds like, you know, how they say, you know, uh, control the things you can. And it sounds like certainty is an element of control that you can instill in a business, and then you can let the recipe chaotic and ambiguous. But well, you can instill certainty is what you’re saying.
Anthony: Absolutely. It’s important to have certainty when you create your documents, but also brand protection and intellectual property, making sure that you have something that is not going to be infringed upon.
Tiam: Let’s talk about franchises, sort of through and entrepreneurial lens.
Anthony: There are a few key benefits to creating a franchise. One of them is you’re able to expand nationally very quickly instead of having to open up kind of a brick-and-mortar store with your own capital or, you know, seeking venture capitalists to invest in your company.
You can go ahead and partner with people in different markets, right away.
If someone here, you know, wanted to open up a restaurant, in Florida, instead of having to go out there, scout the location and sign a lease you can partner with someone who wants to own a business in their market. Franchising matches people are super creative, with people who are looking for an opportunity to own a business, but perhaps don’t want to go through the headache of worrying about compliance. It’s a $700 billion industry, and it’s growing at a really high pace.
Tiam: So when it comes to your clients who are our potential franchisees, what are some of the cons or drawbacks that they would, you would suggest that they consider before starting a franchise, as opposed to having their own business?
Anthony: The Franchisor essentially has all the cards and the franchisee has to play by their rules.
So if you’re someone who is a rule follower, it might be great because you know, you go ahead and you’re unsure of a certain situation, open up your franchise agreement, open up your operations manual. This is it. If someone who, you know, gets uncomfortable following rules I would not suggest being a franchisee. There is a trade off, the franchisor is going to be making less money if they’re going to go ahead and partner with franchises. There is a trade off, the franchisor is going to be making less money if they’re going to go ahead and partner with franchises, but at the same time, you know, you’re going to have a larger presence and franchisee is going to be more invested in your business instead of just hiring an employee who may be working a 9 to 5, the franchisees are actual business owners so they want to succeed and you should want your franchisees to succeed too.